A flame retardant wrap is used to protect flammable material. A flame retardant wrap may be used to cover a palate of flammable solid material, or just an individual item, for example a paper roll. A stretch film composite with a flame retardant component has been suggested for such use. The stretch film lends itself to easy coverage, the stretch film clings to the flammable material being covered and the stretch film provides a moisture barrier. However, it has been found that stretch films with flame retardant components fail to pass flame tests, for example large scale NFPA 701 testing (National Fire Protection Association).
When exposed to flame or heat, stretch film tends to melt and shrink away from the solid material intended to be protected. This causes the protected material to become uncovered by the shrink film and fully exposed to the flame. Once the flame retardant film loses its coverage dimension, the flame is no longer inhibited.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,264,031 to Pienta et. al. discloses a packaging method for combustible paper rolls comprising inner and outer stretch film layers with an intermediate Kraft paper layer. Although, mentioned as being fire resistant the Pienta invention does not pass NFPA 701 fire tests.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,265,082 to Dunham et. al. discloses a fire retardant composition that is a cured film that contains a curable resin and a fire retardant. The film is adhered to a flexible substrate in a manner to not substantially alter the hand of the flexible substrate. The fire retardant film is adhesively applied to some flexible substrate, typically a cloth fabric. Unless pre-applied at a processing site, adhesively attaching a fire retardant film requires manual intervention. A flame retardant material could be attached directly without the need of a surface film. Further the substrate is not flame retardant.
It is desirable to provide a method of completely covering a solid flammable material with a flame retardant and moisture resistant material that is snuggly attached to the flammable material without increasing the risk of spreading a fire and . It would be further desirable if the flame retardant system had a relatively low installation cost while passing large scale NFPA 701 flame test.